From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Sat Feb 01 2003 - 12:48:29 MST
From: <Spudboy100@aol.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: Hydrogen as SCAM?
> Rafal noted:
>
> <<### The total land area of the US is 9,158,960 sq km. It would be easy
to
> use a million square miles for windfarms.
> Rafal>>
>
> Ok. Converting 9,158,960 square klicks into mental miles = 33% X 9,158,960
> or rather kilometers to kilometers.
>
> So we add it 3022456.8, to the 9 mil figure, bringing in into the 12
million
> range. 12 Million kilometers, that is. So windfarms would use 1/11th of
the
> land surface of the US? That's a huge chunk of landspace. You don't
suppose
> that people would end up filing lawsuits against any company that needed
to
> use such land for wind power, do you? I am not sure the author I quoted
from
> on the National Review is correct, but it seems thought provoking.
>
> A lot of the mentality promoting solar power, for example, and declaiming
> nuclear fission (perhaps rightly) seems based on propaganda that has
choruses
> of women singing sweetly, as wide-angle shots of the sun, in a clear
morning
> sky. This is far less emphasis given to solar research around the world,
> which would involve solar cell manufacture techniques, inorganic chemistry
> studies, and fuel cell analyses.
### I am not an enemy of nuclear power - if you could build a huge
conglomerate of nuclear power stations in the middle of the desert, with
shared defense perimeter, and a nuclear waste repository in the middle, it
would be the coolest, safest, and possibly the cheapest method of getting
energy.
Still, I note that wind power apparently is close to competing with coal,
gas, and nuclear in terms of price, and the land problem is not really a
problem. If the free market was allowed to choose between either one of
them, I'd be happy with any outcome.
But I agree that the Greens will most likely try to sabotage any progressive
technology, and sue the windfarms for "ugliness".
Rafal
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